


47th Time's the Charm

by rajkumari905



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: Fairy Tales, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-09
Updated: 2011-08-09
Packaged: 2017-10-22 10:18:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rajkumari905/pseuds/rajkumari905
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David's made his way through the brambles, and past the dragon. This is supposed to be the easy part! Sleeping Beauty AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	47th Time's the Charm

David fit between the brambles pretty easily (although he did get stabbed once, and it _hurt_ ) and he distracted the dragon (who's really not mean, just misunderstood) with a sack of cookies. He only had to stop and rest twice when he was going up the ridiculously long spiral staircase, and now he's finally at the top and in front of a plain wooden door. This is it.

He knocks and waits for an answer, before he remembers that Prince Cook is _asleep_ so obviously he won't be able to open the door. Then he tentatively pushes the door open and peeks his head in.

And it's just like he was told it would be like. There's a big bed, and Prince Cook (or who he assumes to be Prince Cook, but wouldn't it be funny if it were actually someone else? Funny in a not-funny-at-all way.) is curled up, peacefully asleep under the blankets. David creeps closer, feeling like he's intruding, and Cook snuffles a bit in his sleep and turns toward him, causing David to jump about a mile.

He retreats back to the doorway and wavers uncertainly. This is supposed to be the easy part! When the wizard was explaining what he had to do, he put lots of detail into things like fighting the dragon. But David paid attention in his lessons about magical creatures, okay, and he knows about how dragons love sweets, so he just swung by the bakery on the way out of the village. Maybe it was the easy way out, but David would rather not fight if he doesn't have to.

And now he's here, and Prince Cook is _right there_ , and this should be simple, or at least that's how the wizard made it seem when he said 'and then you kiss him and he wakes up!'

Except it's totally not as easy as that! And he knows what all the nobles whisper about him, the completely innocent Prince David Archuleta, but that's not it either. He knows he's kind of naive, but he _has_ been kissed before, thank you very much. Mostly his servant/friend Danny wouldn't take no for an answer, but that's a different story.

And now that David can see Prince Cook's face, he can also tell that Prince Cook is, um, pretty good-looking. Well, his eyes are closed, so David can't see what color they are, and his nose is... pretty normal, he guesses. He's got some stubble growing from being asleep for over a week, and it kind of suits him. And his mouth is, um. David probably spends a couple minutes too long staring at his mouth, but hey, he can totally be excused, okay, since he's apparently supposed to press _his_ mouth to that mouth. He thinks that's a pretty good excuse for staring at it. Anyways, overall, Prince Cook is relatively attractive, so that's not the problem either. Not that David is so shallow that he only kisses pretty people, but it does help.

David ventures closer again, and peers at Prince Cook's face. It'll be okay, he decides. He'll just- he'll just _do_ it, and then it will be done! He nods resolutely and walks to the edge of the bed and leans forward, and promptly backs away again. The thing is, it's just. Just awkward to be kissing someone when they're asleep. And David doesn't even _know_ Prince Cook, so he doesn't think he'd kiss him even if he _was_ awake.

Mostly this whole situation kind of sucks.

David can't help but think about if he were in Prince Cook's position, and someone random that he didn't even know had to come kiss him. How awkward would that be? To wake up with some stranger's mouth pressed against your own mouth? Yeah, no thanks. What if Prince Cook starts yelling or something, thinking that David is, like, taking advantage of him? And David doesn't think Prince Cook would do that, he's heard that he's pretty easy-going, but still. If it were David, he'd probably be so startled that he'd wind up smacking the person kissing him in the face, and yeah, he can add 'risk of personal injury' to the list of reasons why this is a bad idea.

It's all futile anyway, he knows. He can't just _leave_ Prince Cook here, so obviously, David is just going to have to suck it up and. Kiss him.

Any time now.

\----------------------------

David falls asleep on the floor, and wakes up with a crick in his neck. He surveys Prince Cook as he eats some bread and cheese from his pack, wondering if Prince Cook will be hungry when he wakes up. David hopes he has enough food to last them both the journey back. Assuming Prince Cook even wants to come back with him. Assuming he even manages to kiss Prince Cook. Which he will. Soon.

David paces around the room, trying to prepare himself, and finally he tells himself that there's nothing to it but to do it. So he marches to the bedside with a confidence he doesn't feel, carefully turns Prince Cook's head in his direction and, ever so gently, brushes his lips against Prince Cook's.

Then he flees faster than a rabbit escaping into its hole.

A moment later, when he doesn't hear anything, he pokes his head out from behind the dresser to see that Prince Cook hasn't moved. Not an inch.

Now what?

David goes back to Prince Cook's bedside, and even shakes him gently just to make sure, and yeah, he's totally still asleep. If David thought he was in trouble before, what with having to kiss a total stranger, this is way worse. David can't go back home without Prince Cook, okay, because if the nobles make fun of him now, they'll be much worse when he comes back from here with nothing to show for it. They'll probably say things like, 'oh poor Prince David Archuleta, he doesn't even know how to kiss properly!' Sometimes David severely dislikes the snide, prissy nobles. The villagers are much more pleasant to be around anyway.

And aside from all of his personal problems, Prince Cook needs to be rescued! It's certainly not his fault that the wizard accidentally gave him sleep-and-disappear-to-an-obscure-location potion instead of Ultra Mega Manscape hair potion, whatever that is. Basically, this is all the wizard's fault (even though, really, the wizard has a lot to do, so he can't be blamed for making one mistake).

It's another 3 hours before David builds up his courage to try and kiss Prince Cook again. This time he doesn't escape to the dresser right afterwards, but he does jump backwards, just in case. It's all pointless anyway, since all Prince Cook does is let out this (kind of cute) half-snore, half-whistle and fling his arms up. And then David wastes a little too long staring at his forearms.

This is not going to end well.

\-------------------------

It's been three days and David has kissed Prince Cook 46 times. Maybe he really _doesn't_ know how to kiss properly, since obviously his kisses are very much not having the desired effect. He must have _defective lips_ , he thinks miserably.

In any case, David's not leaving him until he has absolutely no choice, both because he doesn't want to face anyone at home and because, well, David's grown kind of fond of Prince Cook, in a weird way. Trying to kiss someone out of a catatonic state will do that. Particularly when the person he's trying to kiss makes cute noises and mumbles about indecipherable things in their sleep. Well whatever, the fondness isn't a _thing_ , it's just there. It's not like Prince Cook is even conscious anyway.

... Maybe the 47th time's the charm?

Maybe the problem is that he's not kissing Prince Cook, like, _enough_. This time (is going to work, David can feel it. Maybe.) he'll just go all in, and just- just do it.

He kneels on the bed and braces his hands on either side of Prince Cook's head. "Wake up?" he says pleadingly, as a last resort, but Prince Cook doesn't so much as twitch. Apparently, he really _is_ going to have to, like, take advantage of Prince Cook to wake him up. With a sigh, David lowers his lips carefully to Prince Cook's, and instead of pulling away immediately, he lets them rest there for a moment, before tentatively starting to move them. The kiss lasts a good ten seconds, and David even goes so far as to swipe his tongue against Prince Cook's bottom lip before backing away.

He holds his breath as he stares at Prince Cook, hoping desperately for, well, _anything_.

Nothing.

He waits a good five minutes, just to be sure, and then collapses on top of Prince Cook in utter defeat. There's nothing for it, he's going to have to go home and admit that he couldn't wake- wow, okay, Prince Cook smells kind of good, and that is really distracting right now.

He shifts his head a little closer to Prince Cook's neck, and kind of cuddles a little bit closer, before realizing that _hello_ , he is being _really creepy_ at the moment, cuddling with a total stranger (even if Prince Cook doesn't feel like a stranger anymore) while he's asleep. He hastily starts to push himself off of Prince Cook, but he's stopped before he can get anywhere. By a pair of arms that have suddenly wrapped tight around his body and are squeezing him _really_ tight. Huh.

"Oh my gosh!" he blurts, and scrambles to disentangle himself from Prince Cook's _awake_ self and put a decent amount of distance between them. When he's managed to retreat to the end of the bed, he chances a look at Prince Cook, who looks considerably less confused than David feels, which David thinks is kind of unfair, since at least he's been awake all this time.

"Hey, thanks, man, you saved me," Prince Cook says, and grins, and David blinks for a moment, because Prince Cook has a, um, really nice smile.

"I, um. Prince Cook?" David asks, and then cringes at his own lameness.

"That's me, Prince David Cook," Prince Cook says easily, with his stupid smile, "but it appears that I'm at a disadvantage. You know who I am, but I have yet to learn who my mysterious savior is."

"Oh! I didn't know your name was David. I'm David too. Um, Prince David Archuleta, from the Kingdom of Utah."

"Nice to meet you," Prince Cook grins, and holds out a hand. David moves forward until he can reach his hand, and Prince Cook pulls him forward until he's perched on the bed next to him, and slings an arm around him.

"Oh my gosh, _Prince Cook_!" David protests, and Prince Cook just laughs at him.

"Hey, drop the formality, okay? Call me Cook. After all, you did give me true love's hug."

David is about to concede the truth of that statement when he realizes what exactly Cook just said.

"Wait, what?"

"True love's hug? You know, I'm sure you've heard the stories. The damsel in distress is saved by the hug of her prince charming? Isn't that what you did?"

And suddenly, everything falls into place.

Meanwhile, Cook is still talking. "Although I guess that makes me the damsel in distress. I guess I can deal with that if you're my prince charming."

He winks at David, who flushes, and can't think of anything to say except, "I am really kind of mad at the wizard right now." Cook blinks, and David continues, "Oh my heck, does that mean I kissed you 47 times for no reason?"

As soon as he lets the words slip he wishes he could take them back, because Cook's eyes glint and his mouth forms a (really attractive) smirk. "So let me get this straight. I got kissed 47 times, and I don't remember any of them?"

His voice comes out low, making David's stomach clench, when he leans close and says, "That doesn't seem very fair, does it?"

David tries to respond, he really does, but all that he manages is a sort of strangled sound as Cook slides a hand around the back of his neck and whispers, "How about we make up for all 47 of those kisses?"

Then he kisses David, and it's easy and warm, and David discovers that kissing Cook is a lot different when he's awake. He opens his mouth when Cook deepens the kiss, bringing his hand up to cup David's cheek.

"I think, um," David pants, something like fifteen minutes later, flat on his back with Cook stretched out beside him, "that that counts for like ten kisses or something."

"As long as I don't have to stop at 47," Cook agrees, and leans in to kiss him again.

"But- but wait," David says a little while later, pushing Cook back. "True love?"

Cook's lips quirk into a sort of confused half-smile. "Well, yeah. I mean, it wouldn't have worked if it wasn't, right?" He looks kind of worried suddenly. "Is that okay?"

"Um, _yeah_ ," David says, because apparently the not-thing has turned into a _thing_ since Cook woke up. Cook grins and says, "Awesome," before pulling David back up to his mouth.

At least now David knows that he really _does_ know how to kiss. So there.


End file.
